Muzio Clementi

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Portrait of Clementi by Aleksander Orłowski (1810)

Muzio Clementi (24 January 1752, Rome – 10 March 1832, Evesham, Worcestershire, England) was an celebrated Italian classical music musician, composer, pianist, piano teacher, orchestral conductor, music publisher, editor and piano manufacturer. He is acknowledged as the first to write specifically for the piano. He is best known for his piano sonatas, sonatinas and his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum. Muzio Clementi was called "The Father of the Pianoforte", "Father of the Modern Piano Technique" and "Father of Romantic pianistic virtuosity".

In his day, the European reputation of Muzio Clementi was second only to Joseph Haydn in the area of Symphonies. Unlike his eminent contemporaries, however, the Italian composer wrote primarily for the piano, as reflected in his catalogue of 110-plus sonatas and other piano works. His first maestro was his father and then Sir Peter Beckford, a wealthy English voyager.

He was influenced by Domenico Scarlatti's harpsichord school, by Haydn's classical school and by the stile galante of Johann Christian Bach. He soon became known as one of the great virtuoso pianists. He went on tour numerous times, starting from London - where he had lived for many years - and then all throughout Europe. He taught keyboard, and his method is used still today. Very esteemed as a teacher, his students were John Field, Johann Baptist Cramer and Ignaz Moscheles, but also Giacomo Meyerbeer, Friedrich Wilhelm Kalkbrenner, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Carl Czerny attended courses which he held in Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Prague, Rome and Milan.

Clementi, who not only produced his own brand of pianos, was also a music publisher. It was thanks to this extra activity of his that many pieces of music by contemporary and non-contemporary authors were brought to light. Much more than just a simple musician, Clementi was sought after by the aristocrats of high society.


Contents

[edit] Biography

Muzio [Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio] Clementi (baptized Mutius Philippus Vincentius Franciscus Xaverius), was born in Rome, Italy on 24 January 1752 and the following day baptized in the local church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso. He was the eldest of the seven children of Nicolo Clementi (1720–1789), a highly respected silversmith, and Madalena, née Caisar (Magdalena Kaiser), who was Swiss. His father became aware of his son’s musical talent that by age seven he was sent to a musical instruction. His musical talent became clear at an early age: by age nine he was so proficient that he gained a position as a church organist at his home church of St Lorenzo in Damaso. He began his musical studies as a child with a relative Antonio Baroni, maestro di cappella at St Peter’s basilica, and at the age of seven commenced studies with the organist Cordicelli. He later studied voice with Giuseppe Santarelli. It was at age 11-12 that he was given counterpoint lessons by Gaetano Carpani. By the age of 13 he had already composed an Oratorio, Martitio de’ gloriosi Santi Giuliano, and a mass. By January 1766 when he was 14, he became organist of the parish San Lorenzo in Dámaso.

In 1766, Sir Peter Beckford (1740-1811), a wealthy Englishman and cousin of the English novelist William Thomas Beckford, twice the Lord Mayor of London, visited Rome. He was impressed by the young Clementi's musical talent, and negotiated with Nicolò to take Clementi to his estate of Steepleton Iwerne, just north of Blandford Forum in Dorset, England — where Beckford agreed to provide quarterly payments to sponsor Muzio's musical education. In return for this education, he was expected to provide musical entertainment at the manor. It was here that Clementi spent the next 7 years in devoted study and practice at the harpsichord. With the permission of Clementi’s father, Beckford took the boy to England. For the next seven years Clementi lived, performed, and studied at his patron’s estate of Stepleton Iwerne in Dorset. His compositions from this early period, however, are few, and they have almost all been lost.

In 1770, Clementi made his first public performance as an organist. The audience was very impressed with his playing, beginning what at the time was one of the most successful concert pianist careers in history.

In 1774, Clementi was freed from his obligations to Peter Beckford, During the winter of 1774–1775, Clementi moved and settled in London, making his first appearance as a harpsichordist in a benefit concert on April 3, 1775. Among other accomplishments he made several public appearances as a solo harpsichordist at benefit concerts for a singer and a harpist, and served as "conductor" — from the keyboard — at the King's Theatre (Her Majesty's Theatre), Haymarket for at least part of this period. His popularity grew in 1779 and 1780, due at least in part to the popularity of his newly-published Opus 2 Sonatas. His fame and popularity rose quickly, and he was considered by many in musical circles to be the greatest piano virtuoso in the world.

Clementi started a European tour in 1781, when he travelled to France, Germany, and Austria. In Vienna, Clementi agreed with Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II to enter a musical duel with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the entertainment of the Emperor and his guests. Each performer was called upon to improvise and perform selections from his own compositions. The ability of both these composer-virtuosi was so great that the Emperor was forced to declare a tie at the Vienese court that day on 24 December 1781.

On 12 January 1782, Mozart wrote to his father: "Clementi plays well, as far as execution with the right hand goes. His greatest strength lies in his passages in 3rds. Apart from that, he has not a kreuzer’s worth of taste or feeling - in short he is a mere mechanicus. (Mechanicus is Latin for automaton or robot.) In a subsequent letter, Mozart even went so far as to say: "Clementi is a charlatan, like all Italians. He marks a piece presto but plays only allegro." Clementi's impressions of Mozart, by contrast, were all rather enthusiastically positive.

Clementi’s impressions of Mozart’s performance were filled with nothing but praise for his colleague. According to Ludwig Berger he recalled: "Until then I had never heard anyone play with such spirit and grace. I was particularly overwhelmed by an adagio and by several of his extempore variations for which the Emperor had chosen the theme, and which we were to devise alternately."

The main theme of Clementi's B-Flat Major sonata (op. 24, no. 2), however, captured Mozart's imagination. Ten years later, in 1791, Mozart used it in the overture to his opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). This so embittered Clementi that every time this sonata was published, he made certain that it included a note explaining that it had been written ten years before Mozart began writing Zauberflöte. Clementi's admiration and devotion to Mozart, obviously not reciprocated, show from a large number of transcriptions he made of Mozart's music, among which can be found a piano solo version of just this Overture to the "Zauberflöte".

Starting in 1782, and for the next twenty years, Clementi stayed in England playing the piano, conducting, and teaching. Two of his students attained a fair amount of fame for themselves: Johann Baptist Cramer; and John Field (who, in his turn, would become a major influence on Frédéric Chopin).

Clementi Took over the firm Longman and Broderip in 1798 at 26 Cheapside initially with a James Longman who left in 1801. Clementi also had premises at 195 Tottenham Court Road from 1806. The publication line 'Clementi & Co, & Clementi, Cheapside' appears on a lithograph, 'Music' by W Sharp after J Wood, circa 1830s.

Clementi also began manufacturing pianos, but in March, 1807, the warehouses occupied by Clementi's new firm were destroyed by a fire, entailing a loss of about forty thousand pounds. But the man's courage was indomitable, and he retrieved his misfortunes with characteristic pluck and cheerfulness. That same year, Clementi struck a deal with Ludwig van Beethoven, one of his greatest admirers, that gave him full publishing rights to all of Beethoven's music in England. His stature in music history as an editor and interpreter of Beethoven's music is certainly not less than as being a composer himself (although also criticised for some less docile editorial work, e.g., making harmonic "corrections" to some of Beethoven's music). That Beethoven in his later life started to compose (mostly chamber music) specifically for the British market might have been related to the fact that his publisher was based there.

In 1810, Clementi ceased his concerts to devote all of his time to composition and piano making. On January 24, 1813, Clementi together with a group of prominent professional musicians in London founded the "Philharmonic Society of London", which became the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1912. In 1813 Clementi was appointed a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music.

After 1810 Clementi gave up playing in public, and devoted himself to composing and the conduct of his piano-forte business, which became very large and valuable. Himself an inventor and mechanician, he made many important improvements in the construction of the piano, some of which have never been superseded.

At the end of 1816 Clementi made another trip to the continent, presenting his new works, particularly at the Concerts Spirituels in Paris. He returned to London only in June 1818, after stopping off also in Frankfurt. In 1821 he once again returned to Paris and he also performed his symphonies in Munich and Leipzig. Even in London he was widely acclaimed as a symphonist: in 1824 his symphonies were featured in five out of the six programmes at the 'Concerts of Ancient and Modern Music' at the King's Theatre.

In 1826 Clementi completed his monumental Gradus ad Parnassum and set off for Paris with the intention of publishing the third volume of the work simultaneously in Paris, London and Leipzig. After staying in Baden and most likely making another visit to Italy, he returned to London only in the autumn of 1827.

On 17 December 1827 a large banquet, organised by Johann Baptist Cramer and Ignaz Moscheles, was held in his honour at the Hotel Albion. From Moscheles' diary we learn that on that occasion Clementi himself improvised at the piano on a theme by Handel. In 1828 he made his last public appearance at the opening concert of the Philharmonic Society; in 1830 he retired from the Society.

In 1830, Clementi moved to live outside Lichfield, Staffordshire and then spent his final, less exciting years in Evesham, Worcestershire. On 10 March 1832, after a short illness Clementi died at the age of eighty. On 29 March 1832 he was buried at Westminster Abbey. Accompanying his body were three of his famous students: Johann Baptist Cramer, John Field and Ignaz Moscheles. He had been married three times and is said to have had four children.

[edit] Music

See also: List of compositions by Muzio Clementi

Muzio Clementi is the composer of the definitive Classical piano sonata, was the first to create keyboard works expressly for the capabilities of the pianoforte. Acclaimed as the father of the pianoforte and modern piano technique, this complex and influential musician was also the first virtuoso on the instrument. Clementi established the modern piano technique and had influenced to the next generation on the history of piano music.

Of Clementi's playing in his youth, Moscheles wrote that it was "marked by a most beautiful legato, a supple touch in lively passages, and a most unfailing technique." Mozart may be said to have closed the old and Clementi to have founded the newer school of technique on the piano.

Amongst Clementi's compositions the most remarkable are sixty sonatas for pianoforte, and the great collection of Etudes called Gradus ad Parnassum, which has a historically important and very rewarding for the piano study.

Clementi is best known for his freerunning capabilities and his outstanding knowledge of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum. Debussy's piece Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum (the first movement of his suite Children's Corner) makes playful allusion to it. Similarly his sonatinas are still popular for piano students everywhere. Erik Satie, a contemporary of Debussy, would later parody these sonatinas (specifically the sonatina Op. 36 N° 1) in his Sonatine Bureaucratique.

Clementi composed almost 110 piano sonatas. Some of the earlier and easier ones were later classified as sonatinas after the success of his Sonatinas Op. 36, and continue to be popular pedagogical pieces in piano education. However, most of Clementi's sonatas are more difficult to play than those of Mozart, who wrote in a letter to his sister that he would prefer her not to play Clementi's sonatas due to their jumped runs, and wide stretches and chords, which he thought might ruin the natural lightness of her hand. Beethoven, however was a great admirer of the Clementi sonatas and their influence is very evident in his own piano compositions.

In addition to the piano solo repertoire, Clementi wrote a great deal of other music, including several recently pieced together, long worked on but slightly unfinished symphonies that are gradually becoming accepted by the musical establishment as being very fine works. A likely reason that these later works were not published in Clementi's lifetime is that he kept revising them. While Clementi's music is hardly ever played in concerts, it is becoming increasingly popular in recordings.

Mozart's most evident disrespect for Clementi (and perhaps Italians in general) has led some to call them "arch rivals". But the animosity was not as far as we know reciprocated by Clementi, and in any case Mozart's letters are full of irreverent jibes which he never expected to become public.

Clementi's influence extended well into the 19th century, with composers using his sonatas as models for their keyboard compositions. Ludwig van Beethoven, in particular, had the highest regard for Clementi. Unlike Mozart, Beethoven was quite different. He did not disparage Clementi but held him in great esteem. Beethoven often played Clementi sonatas and often a volume of them was on Beethoven’s music stand. Beethoven recommended these works to many people including his nephew Karl. The most accurate description of Beethoven's regard for Clementi's music can be found in the testimony of his assistant, Anton Schindler, who wrote "He (Beethoven) had the greatest admiration for these sonatas, considering them the most beautiful, the most pianistic of works, both for their lovely, pleasing, original melodies and for the consistent, easily followed form of each movement. Beethoven had but little liking for Mozart's piano music, and the musical education of his beloved nephew was confined for many years almost exclusively to the playing of Clementi sonatas." (Beethoven as I Knew Him, ed. Donald M. McArdle, trans. Constance Jolly, Chapel Hill and London, 1966). Schindler continues with reference to Beethoven's fondness for Clementi's piano sonatas: "For these he had the greatest preference and placed them in the front rank of pieces appropriate to the development of fine piano playing, as much for their lovely, pleasing, fresh melodies as for the well knit, fluent forms of all the movements." In Moscheles edition of Schindler's biography he quotes Schindler as follows: "Among all the masters who have written for pianoforte, Beethoven assigned to Clementi the very foremost rank. He considered his works excellent as studies for practice, for the formation of a pure taste, and as truly beautiful subjects for performance. Beethoven used to say...'They who thoroughly study Clementi, at the same time make themselves acquainted with Mozart and other composers; but the converse is not the fact.' "

Carl Czerny (1791-1857)also had the highest regard for Clementi's piano sonatas and used them successfully in his teaching of Franz Liszt. Czerny referred to Clementi as "the foremost pianist of his time."


Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz developed a special fondness for Clementi's work after his wife, Wanda Toscanini bought him Clementi's complete works. Horowitz even compared some of them to the best works of Beethoven. The restoration of Clementi's image as an artist to be taken seriously is not least due to his efforts and today to Andreas Staier, Andrea Coen and Costantino Mastroprimiano.

Being a contemporary of the greatest classical piano composers such as Mozart and Beethoven cast a large shadow on his own work (making him one of the "lesser gods"), at least in concert practice, despite the fact that he had a central position in the history of piano music, as well as in the development of the sonata form.

With ministerial decree dated 20 March 2008, the Opera Omnia of the composer Muzio Clementi was promoted to the status of Italian National Edition. The steering committee of the National Edition consisting of the scholars Andrea Coen (Rome), Roberto De Caro (Bologna), Roberto Illiano (Lucca — President), Leon B. Plantinga (New Haven, CT), David Rowland (Milton Keynes, UK), Luca Sala (Cremona/Poitiers, Secretary and Treasurer), Massimiliano Sala (Pistoia, Vice-President), Rohan H. Stewart-MacDonald (Cambridge, UK) and Valeria Tarsetti (Bologna).

[edit] Recordings
Sonata in G minor Op 50, No.3, 'Didone Abbandonata' - I and II. Largo patetico e sostenuto and Allegro ma con espressione
Performed by Nathan Eckel. Courtesy of Musopen
Sonata in G minor Op 50, No.3, 'Didone Abbandonata' - III. Adagio Dolente
Performed by Nathan Eckel. Courtesy of Musopen
Sonata in G minor Op 50, No.3 'Didone Abbandonata' - IV. allegro agitato, e con disperazione
Performed by Nathan Eckel. Courtesy of Musopen
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[edit] Critical Edition

With a ministerial decree dated 20 March 2008, the Opera Omnia of the composer Muzio Clementi was promoted to the status of Italian National Edition. The official ceremony took place at the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage (Rome) in the presence of On. Andrea Marcucci, the Under-Secretary of State, Dr. Maurizio Fallace, Director-General for the Library Heritage and Cultural Institutes, and the steering committee of the National Edition consisting of the scholars Andrea Coen (Rome), Roberto De Caro (Bologna), Roberto Illiano (Lucca — President), Leon B. Plantinga (New Haven, CT), David Rowland (Milton Keynes, UK), Luca Sala (Cremona/Poitiers, Secretary Treasurer), Massimiliano Sala (Pistoia, Vice-President), Rohan H. Stewart-MacDonald (Cambridge, UK) and Valeria Tarsetti (Bologna).

The critical edition of the complete works of Clementi, published by Ut Orpheus Edizioni of Bologna, will consist of 15 volumes: the first two will contain vocal and orchestral music respectively, five volumes will be devoted to the chamber music, two volumes to the keyboard works, and two volumes to the didactic works. Another three volumes will contain: 1.) the doubtful works, the arrangements and transcriptions of Clementi; 2.) the correspondence; 3.) a thematic catalogue of his works together with documents relating to his life, the iconography and an updated bibliography. Each volume will contain an analytical historical introduction, a critical edition of the music and a critical commentary (comprising a list, description and criticism of the sources, an account of the interpretational problems and a list of variants).

[edit] Further reading

  • Tyson, Alan (1967). Thematic catalogue of the works of Muzio Clementi. Tutzing: Schneider. OCLC 457741. [1]
  • Leon B. Plantinga: Clementi: His Life and Music (Oxford University Press, February 1977)
  • R. Illiano, L. Sala, M. Sala (eds.): Muzio Clementi. Studies and Prospects (Bologna 2002)
  • M. Sala, R. Bösel (eds.): Muzio Clementi Cosmopolita della Musica (Bologna 2004)
  • R. H. Stewart-MacDonald: New Perspectives on the Keyboard Sonatas of Muzio Clementi (Bologna 2006)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ K. D. (1968). "Review of Alan Tyson's Thematic Catalogue of the works of Muzio Clementi". Music & Letters 49 (3): 231–233. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4224%28196807%2949%3A3%3C231%3ATCOTWO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V. Retrieved on 2007-01-10. 

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